This week: Notre Dame hosts Gannon in its first game of the 2019 season this week before heading to Edinboro for its first away contest. Gannon visits NDC tomorrow, September 5, at 4 p.m. The Falcons then travel to Edinboro for a game on Saturday, September 7.
 
Records: This week will start the season for all three teams competing. Notre Dame was 10-6-1 last season while Gannon went 9-6-2. Edinboro will play Bloomsburg on Thursday before hosting Saturday's game. The Fighting Scotts went 6-11 last year.
 
Coaches Corner: Mike Shiels is in his 17th season as the head coach for the Falcons. During his time at NDC, Shiels has gone 165-101-20 with a 71-10-8 MEC record. Colin Petersen is also in his 17th season with the Gannon Golden Knights. Peteren has a career record of 150-141-27. Gary Kagiavas enters his 22nd season at Edinboro in 2019. He has amassed a record of 206-160-34 in his past 21 seasons.
 
Rankings: None of the teams received votes in the preseason United State Soccer Coaches Poll released August 6.
 
Series History: NDC also started its season against Edinboro and Gannon in 2018. The Falcons lost both of those matchups with a 1-0 defeat to Edinboro and a 3-0 defeat against Gannon. Notre Dame is 0-1 against Gannon as their only contest was played last season. The Falcons have also struggled against Edinboro with an overall 0-4 record against the Fighting Scots.
 
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame will look start its season off faster than a year ago. After the Falcons went 0-2 against these teams, NDC went on to go 10-4-1 and win the North Division of the Mountain East Conference. Notre Dame returns most of its offensive output from a year ago with four of its top five scorers from 2018 coming back. The Falcons also return three of their four starting defenders as well as goalkeeper Kyra McDowell, who played every minute in the net in 2018 while recording eight shutouts. McDowell was named Second Team All-MEC in 2018 alongside Lauren Chaney who also made the Second Team. Chaney is a two-time All-MEC player and will look to make it three in her senior season. While Notre Dame returns many of the standout players from last season, head coach Mike Shiels also brought in 15 newcomers to his roster, who are sure to make an impact. Highlighting those new faces is Division I transfer Michelle Escobar. The midfielder comes to NDC after two seasons at Portland State where she played in 15 matches.  
 
Noting the Golden Knights: Gannon's senior forward, Taylor Lewis, is going to be the player to watch against Notre Dame as she scored 10 goals and assisted on seven others in 2018.  Lewis totaled five points against NDC last year with two goals and an assist. Returning for her senior season, she is poised to pass 100 career points, currently with 87. The Golden Knights scored 33 goals last season from 11 players. Nine of those players are back for 2019, who were responsible for 31 of the teams 33 scoring plays. Gannon does lose its starting goalkeeper from a year ago, who played in 13 of its 17 games.  
 
Noting the Fighting Scots: Edinboro also returns the majority of its offense with its top three scorers all coming back for 2019. The Fighting Scots leading scorer, Danielle Chatten, scored the only goal against NDC last season in the team's 1-0 win. Her goal was assisted by Rebecca Manns, who had five assists on the season to lead the team. Both return in 2019. Goalkeeper Anna Voelker played every minute in goal for Edinboro during her freshman campaign in 2018 and will likely return to her role as the team has just two goalies on the roster.
 
Opening Games: Notre Dame's loss to Gannon last year was the first opening game loss NDC had suffered since 2012. Gannon has held its streak for much longer, not having lost an opening game since 2007. Edinboro had a similar streak going until it ended last season. The Fighting Scots had won their second game of the year every season since 2004 until Shippensburg defeated them in their game two of 2018.